And if you don’t believe me, just ask this guy:

In late March, two journalists from The Atlantic — Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer — through sheer perseverance and a stroke of good luck, scored an interview with Donald Trump.

Their report on that conversation is detailed, fascinating . . . and chilling. From my perspective, it is well worth your time to read it in full, as I could not begin to do it justice here.

But one paragraph — near the end of the interview and before the authors segue into a discussion of how Trump’s second term even came to be — leapt out at me. I just want to quote that part, and let you judge for yourselves what to make of it.

The interviewers had asked Trump if his second term felt different from his first. And this was his response:

“The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.” [Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, The Atlantic, April 28, 2025.]

I have nothing to add . . .

Brendochka
4/29/25

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/29/25

I don’t need Snopes to tell me that all but one of the following statements are untrue. See if you can find the single truth amongst all the lies . . . or if you need serious help.

*. *. *

#1: The moon is made of cheese.

*. *. *

#2: Ukraine started the war.

*. *. *

#3: The stork delivers babies.

*. *. *

#4: Vladimir Putin sincerely wants to end the war.

*. *. *

#5: Kissing a frog will give you warts.

*. *. *

#6: Bobby Kennedy, Jr. has a functioning brain.

*. *. *

#7: The Earth is round, not flat.

*. *. *

#8: Higher tariffs will lead to lower taxes.

*. *. *

#9: Black cats are bad luck.

*. *. *

#10: Elon Musk will establish the first colony on Mars.

*. *. *

#11: Sitting on cold pavement will cause hemorrhoids.

*. *. *

#12: Donald Trump will make America great again.

*. *. *

So how did you do? My guess is that the vast majority of you got it right, while those wearing the MAGA hats are still trying to figure out how to pronounce “hemorrhoids.” (By the way, MAGA people, #7 is the correct answer.)

Just a little fun for Tuesday . . .

Brendochka
4/29/25

Vladimir Putin’s unilateral Easter ceasefire turned out to be — not that anyone was surprised — a big, fat red herring: a distraction from his continuing refusal to negotiate seriously any meaningful peace terms with Ukraine.

So now, to “prove” his sincerity, he is offering, not just a single day, but a three-day temporary ceasefire . . . this time to allow him to enjoy Russia’s annual Victory Day celebrations on May 8th: the 80th anniversary of what is called in his country “the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.”

The statement issued today by the Kremlin on its official Telegram channel said:

“Based on humanitarian considerations, the Russian side declares a truce during the 80th anniversary of the Victory Day. For this period, all hostilities are stopped.” [David Brennan, GMA, April 28, 2025.]

Well, isn’t that special! But wait . . . there’s more:

“Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example. In the event of violations of the truce by the Ukrainian side, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will give an adequate and effective response.” [Id.]

Aha! The escape clause.

Are we really supposed to take this at face value? After all of the lies, the broken promises, the continued bombardments (even on Easter Sunday, during the so-called “ceasefire”) . . . is there any reason to believe that this time will be different?

And why just three days? If Putin is truly interested in “humanitarian considerations,” why not offer the 30 days suggested by the Ukrainian side? As Ukraine’s President Zelensky has said,

“ . . . [there is] no reason to wait [until May 8]. Russia has consistently rejected everything and continues to manipulate the world, trying to deceive the United States. Now, yet again, another attempt at manipulation: for some reason everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire — just to provide Putin with silence for his parade.” [Id.]

Even the Trump administration isn’t satisfied with this latest hollow gesture from Putin. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said:

“While President Trump welcomes Vladimir Putin’s willingness to pause the conflict, the president [Trump] has been very clear he wants a permanent ceasefire and to bring this conflict to a peaceful resolution.” [Darya Tarasova, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Edward Upright and Sana Noor Haq, CNN, April 28, 2025.]

But since April 19th, when Putin ordered the Easter ceasefire to take place the following day, at least 62 civilians have been killed and another 290 injured in Ukraine by Russian attacks. [Id.]

*. *. *

So what do we make of this latest exchange? Once again, I find that no one (least of all myself) can say it better than my favorite old reliable, William Shakespeare:

“It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
– Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

Such is life . . . still today, five centuries later.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/28/25

George Bogen hadn’t done anything wrong; he had simply attended a friend’s wedding in Jamaica in 2019. He didn’t know that some six years later, a picture of him among the other attendees at the wedding would appear on the internet, or that it would be seen by members of the second Trump administration. Or that someone would recall that Bogen had also attended the same friend’s second wedding in 2023.

Whether or not he knew that the groom at those two weddings, Miles Taylor, had published an opinion piece in 2018 critical of Donald Trump — then serving his first term as president — is irrelevant . . . or it should be.

But to Trump, no slight — no matter how small or insignificant — is irrelevant, or ever forgotten.

Or forgiven.

Because George Bogen — who had been serving as Executive Director of the Office of Trade Relations at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — was asked to step down from his post last week because of his alleged connection to Miles Taylor. [William Vaillancourt, Daily Beast, April 25, 2025.]

That’s right, folks . . . in Washington’s official circles, you are no longer allowed to choose your own friends. Donald Trump takes very seriously the adage that “the friend of my enemy is my enemy.” And he makes no secret of his unquenchable thirst for revenge.

This, then, is the moral compass of the man that more than half of America’s voters trusted to ruin . . . sorry, run . . . their country for them.

Happy yet?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/28/25

I recently asked how you would feel if someone were simply to take your home away from you and give it to a bully who had no legal claim to it, but merely wanted it for his own greedy purposes.

And now I ask: What if it were not just your property . . . but your children . . . who were snatched from your arms, or their beds, or their schools, and whisked off to a secret location to be “re-educated” — indoctrinated into a new way of life, completely alien to anything they had ever known?

Don’t dismiss the idea as some dystopian work of fiction, because it is happening, now, in Ukraine.

While Vladimir Putin continues to drag out negotiations for a peace treaty in Ukraine, gaining a few more miles of territory, and taking a few hundred more lives each day; and while Donald Trump continues to placate Putin while accusing Volodymyr Zelensky of having “allowed” the invasion to happen in the first place . . .

. . . while all of this goes on, and on, and on, now into its fourth year . . .

. . . an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children, kidnapped from their families, are being held prisoner in towns and villages in Russia and in Russian-held Ukrainian territory.

But now, some have been helped by a Ukrainian NGO and others to escape; and one — Vladyslav Rudenko — has spoken out about his nine months in captivity.

In October of 2022, when Rudenko was just 16 years old, three armed Russian soldiers came unannounced to his home in Kherson.

“They came to my apartment and said I had 30 minutes to pack my things, and I had to go with them,” he says. [RFE/RL, April 24, 2025.]

He and hundreds of other young Ukrainians were told they were being evacuated. They were boarded onto buses and transported, with a military escort, to a former health spa in Yevpatoria, in Russian-occupied Crimea. The spa had been transformed into a training camp for indoctrination of Ukrainian youths in all things Russian.

“We were told to get rid of everything Ukrainian, so that there was absolutely nothing Ukrainian, or there would be problems,” Rudenko said. [Id.]

During his nine-month stay there, he underwent Russian military training, and intensive studies in Russian language, culture, and patriotic ideology.

He describes the Soviet-inspired regimen as follows:

“First, we woke up to the Russian national anthem. Then we raised the Russian flag. After breakfast, we had an hour of education about what had happened during the evening in Russia. Then we were taken to a cinema to watch Russian films. It was constantly a vicious cycle where nothing changes.” [Id.]

The youngsters were given military uniforms, including the Russian nationalist St. George’s ribbon,** and were made to take shifts standing guard. “This is a very large pro-Russian machine,” Rudenko explains, “and it was very difficult.” [Id.]

** The Ribbon of St. George is a widely-recognized military symbol, consisting of a black and orange striped pattern, commemorating the veterans of the Eastern Front of World War II (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War).

*. *. *

Not all of the estimated 20,000 children are in camps like the one at Yevpatoria; some have been placed with Russian foster families or in boarding schools. But the camps are described by Mykola Kuleba, Ukrainian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, as a form of “cultural genocide”:

“This is the technique that the Russian Empire used in order to quickly assimilate the population after conquering new territories, to make them obedient to the regime. The main thing is to resettle [them] and start reeducation. That is, to see what needs to be done in order to get these children obedient to the [Putin] regime as soon as possible. Make them ready to live in the Russian Federation and continue to send them to Russia, to families, to boarding schools.” [Id.]

And, of course, to forget who they truly are, where they came from, and that they once had blood relatives who loved them.

* *. *

Thus far, according to Yale Humanitarian Research Lab estimates, more than 8,400 Ukrainian children have been relocated to more than 50 known facilities . . . 13 in Belarus, and 43 in Russia and Russian-occupied territory . . . clearly making Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko complicit in yet another of Vladimir Putin’s crimes against humanity. [Id.]

Only about 1,300 children have been returned to Ukraine by various means.

A recent statement released by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said:

“ . . . without the return of the children abducted by Russia, the war cannot truly be considered over.” [Id.]

While President Zelensky has made previous public demands for the return of the children, and it most likely has been a subject of discussion in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, it is unclear whether the matter has been given priority by the members of the Trump team. We hear plenty about land rights, security guarantees, rare minerals, and NATO membership.

As important as those issues are . . . don’t the lives of these children matter even more?

If their immediate, safe return hasn’t been made a non-negotiable condition of any settlement with Putin, it damn well should be.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/28/25

I count myself among the fortunate people who have never been a victim of crime . . . although a Russian street thug did once try to get his fingers into my cross-body bag on a crowded plaza in St. Petersburg, Russia, in broad daylight. I began yelling at him in Russian, threatened to call for the police, and he ran off. He thought I’d be an easy mark; he hadn’t counted on the one “helpless little lady” tourist who actually knew what she was doing.

But I’m quite certain that if I had ever been unfortunate enough to lose, say, a purse to a thief — whether here or in another country — I would never see that bag, or its contents, again. My complaint to the police would be added to a mountain of similar cases, and I would be left with a promise that they would do their best, and a patronizing lecture on being more careful in the future.

However, things are different if you’re the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and you’ve been careless enough to leave your bag on the floor below your table in a crowded Washington, D.C., restaurant while you’re busily engaged in conversation with your family.

To begin with, that was no ordinary handbag. It was a “high-end Gucci bag,” containing a “Louis Vuitton Clemence wallet, . . . driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash.” [Josh Campbell and John Miller, CNN, April 27, 2025.]

With that number of contents, the bag must have been fairly sizable. And even medium-size Gucci bags sell for — not hundreds — but thousands of dollars. So that thief knew what he was doing. And when he opened it, he must immediately have thought he was the luckiest petty thief in town . . . because the Louis Vuitton wallet alone could run upwards of $600, not to mention the $3,000 inside.

So this was no longer petty theft; it was theft on a grand scale. And what the thief probably did not know — at least, until he looked at the remaining contents of the bag — was that he had chosen as his victim du jour a high-level federal government official.

Forget the police; this was a case for the U.S. Secret Service. And since they already had egg on their faces for having allowed the theft to occur under their very noses, they had, shall we say, added incentive to solve the crime. Which is what they reportedly have done, within just a week’s time.

Today’s report does not mention whether the bag and any or all of its contents were recovered; but there is a fair amount of detail concerning the thief and his modus operandi. Though he is not identified by name, he is obviously not a novice at his trade.

Security footage at the restaurant showed him “purposefully moving closer to Noem as he zeroed in on her Gucci bag near her feet . . . dressed in dark clothing, [he] sat down at an empty table next to Noem with his back facing her and used his left foot to slide the bag away . . . He surveyed the restaurant before eventually picking up the bag, covering it with his jacket and leaving.” [Id.]

So, my earlier fantasies of his possibly having cartwheeled through the restaurant, or rappelled down from the ceiling, were way off the mark. He is just a very practiced sneak thief, unnoticeable in a crowd, who happened to choose his Easter Sunday victim very well. Not everyone walks around with $3,000 in cash.

As for a description of the perpetrator, Noem posted on X that he is a “career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years. Unfortunately, so many families in this country have been made victims by crime, and that’s why President Trump is working every single day to make America safe and get these criminal aliens off of our streets.” [Id.]

What the hell . . . ??!!!

Did this unnamed suspect just hand the Trump administration a huge gift of propaganda material to support their ongoing purge of immigrants? Is this suspect the actual thief . . . or was he simply arrested in a roundup of the “usual suspects” — i.e., one of Noem’s “criminal aliens”?

The report states that, aside from the one person in custody, “multiple additional arrests are expected in a theft ring recently targeting Washington, DC’s, Penn Quarter area.” And a Secret Service representative has said that “the defendant is a serial offender.” [Id.]

So . . . stay with me here . . . if he has been in the country illegally for a number of years; and if he is indeed a serial offender; and if he is possibly part of a theft ring operating in D.C.; and if neither he nor any of the other members of the purported “ring” have been apprehended until now; then how is it that he was so easily identified and taken into custody this week?

Could it be because the victim — Homeland Security head Kristi Noem — was a person of substance . . . a government official . . . a Trump ally? Because the incident was an embarrassment to the Secret Service, and had to be rectified? Or because the Secret Service acted more quickly and efficiently than the D.C. Police Department might have done if the stolen goods had belonged to you or me?

Whatever the case, the truth is that — despite the promise of the Constitution that we are all considered equal under the law — we are not.

Some are simply more equal than others.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/27/25

There was a soap opera that ran on CBS-TV for an incredible 54 years, from 1956 to 2010, called “As the World Turns.”

I’ve never been a fan of soap operas in general; but it appears that the entire world, myself included, is living one now, in real time. It’s only been running since January 20th of this year . . . but it seems an eternity. And it could aptly be named, “As the World Comes to a Screeching Halt.”

But this is no tale of all-American families coping with the vagaries of daily life. This is disaster after disaster . . . day after day . . . never letting up long enough for us to catch our collective breath. And if that’s not enough, the people calling the plays keep moving the damned goalposts.

Like Donald Trump. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?) Well, he did it again yesterday.

After weeks of stomping on Ukrainian President Zelensky, while double-jointedly kissing the backside of Russian President Putin, he suddenly came up with the following mind-blowing comments following meetings with Zelensky and with French President Macron and British Prime Minister Starmer . . . while in the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, no less:

“They [Russia and Ukraine] are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!” [Molly Nagle, Alex Ederson and Hanna Demissie, GMA, April 26, 2025.]

But the real shocker came when Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social: “There was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” [Tim Lister, Catherine Nicholls and Sophie Tanno, CNN, April 26, 2025.]

“Just tapping you along”? Really?!! You’re just now figuring that out??!!!

And Zelensky, thanking Trump for the “good meeting,” posted on social media:

“We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.” [Id.]

Well, if that isn’t a complete 180 from what he’s been told until now . . .

Suddenly, Trump is talking tough to Putin, and holding out hope to Zelensky . . . the man he recently demolished with a shameful verbal attack in the White House. And in view of all of this, I’d like to request:

“Will the real Donald Trump please stand up.”

Because there is never any way of knowing what he means, or what he might say next. For that matter, we don’t know what’s being discussed in his phone calls with Putin, or in the meetings between Putin and real-estate-investor-turned-negotiator-without-portfolio Steve Witkoff. What surprises might they have in store for Zelensky?

*. *. *

And speaking of that last Putin-Witkoff meeting in Moscow, how does the U.S. negotiator walk alone . . . by himself . . . unaccompanied . . . into a meeting with the Russian president and two of his top advisers — Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev — with only a Russian interpreter, and none from the U.S., present?

[The following photos are screen shots from a CNN broadcast.]

That’s three experienced, diabolically savvy politicians against one businessman with zero background in politics or diplomacy who, like his boss, takes whatever Putin tells him as gospel.

Can you say “set-up”?

All we can do is tune in tomorrow for the next episode in the continuing drama of:

“As the World Comes to a Screeching Halt.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/27/25

Earlier this month, Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash appeared in a Moscow court, where she was sentenced to two months of house arrest for allegedly spreading lies about Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Upon leaving the courtroom, she said that her arrest had been a surprise:

“The doorbell rings and [you expect] a kind person, you open the door and there are men in masks.” But she added, “at least I’ll have two months of freedom.” [Ray Furlog, RFE/RL’s Russian Service, April 22, 2025.]

What she meant by the second comment was not entirely clear; she may have been anticipating that further charges would be forthcoming, or she might have been thinking of making a run for it. At some point earlier this month, she was designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian Justice Ministry — a commonly-used moniker for those who speak out against official government policy.

When authorities went to her home on April 13th to carry out a routine check, they found that she was not at home . . . a clear violation of her two-month sentence. On April 21st, the Russian prison agency issued a statement to that effect, after which a Moscow court changed her sentence, making her subject to a term of up to ten years in prison. A warrant has now been issued for her arrest.

*. *. *

But what had she really done?

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Barabash condemned the action, saying that Russian forces had “bombed the country, levelled [sic] whole cities to the ground.” [Id.] As Russian authorities maintained that no state of “war” existed, and that the action was merely a “special military operation,” not targeting civilians, such comments were deemed illegal . . . and grounds for prosecution. But she continued to speak out, even appearing on RFE/RL’s Russian Service programs and criticizing the Kremlin’s authoritarian rule.

*. *. *

Bravely, Barabash’s friends and other supporters stand behind her. Author Anna Berseneva wrote that “millions of decent people think the same as Yekaterina Barabash.” And critic Andrei Plakhov has said that she is “an honorable, principled person — a serious risk factor right now.” [Id.]

And Plakhov could not be more correct. You only have to consider the growing list of journalists and others now in prison for similar “offenses” . . . and the many who have already fled the country.

For her sake, I hope that Yekaterina Barabash has been able to do the same.

Just sayin’ . . .

*. *. *

While Yekaterina Barabash remains missing, she (happily) does not qualify to be added to our list of hostages. But we continue to remember and support those who still languish in Russian prisons and penal colonies on spurious charges:

The Azov 12
David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

We haven’t stopped pressing for the safe return of each and every one.

Brendochka
4/27/25

Was there ever any doubt the Russians would blame Ukraine for yesterday’s car-bomb killing of General Yaroslav Moskalik? In fact, on the very day of the bombing, the Kremlin had already said that “[Kyiv] continues its involvement in terrorist activities inside our country.” [Frances Mao, BBC News, April 26, 2025.]

No surprise there . . . not really. But it is mind-boggling to note how quickly they managed to apprehend someone they identify as “Ukrainian special services agent Ignat Kuzi [for] plant[ing] explosives in a Volkswagen Golf” . . . which were then allegedly detonated remotely from Ukraine. [Id.]

According to the FSB (Federal Security Service), Kuzi was a spy who had been recruited by Ukraine in 2023, and had arrived in Moscow by car in September of that year. He has supposedly been in Moscow, spying for Ukraine, for nearly two years without detection; but within 24 hours of allegedly committing this crime, he has been identified, apprehended, and given a full confession.

That’s some amazing police work!

Russian media say that the FSB has released a video of Kuzi giving a confession, along with footage of his arrest and of the bomb’s components [id.] . . . though I haven’t seen any photographs of the suspect in the news reports as yet. And thus far, there has been no comment on the matter from Ukrainian authorities.

It’s still early days, though, so we will have to wait and see how it plays out . . . or whether it simply gets swept under the proverbial rug.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/26/25